Evening Brief: February 3, 2014

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Evening all,

Democratic Reform Minister Pierre Poilievre dropped a few hints during question period Monday about what the Tories’ long-awaited electoral reform bill will contain. Poilievre also said that, contrary to reports, he has consulted with Canada’s chief electoral officer on the legislation.

Question period also took up two messes: the one Veterans Affairs Minister Julian Fantino created for himself last week and the one created by Edward Snowden for the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC). Fantino began his day with the news, reported by the Ottawa Citizen, that a veterans’ advocate, retired Sgt. Major Barry Westholm, was purposefully and publicly quitting the Conservative party over last week’s kerfuffle between Fantino and veterans. By this afternoon, Fantino’s parliamentary secretary, Parm Gill, was fielding the barrage in QP. Defence Minister Rob Nicholson was in QP, praising CSEC for being respectful and compliant — as opposed to malignant and creepy, per recent CBC disclosures from Snowden’s document trove that say CSEC tapped into airport Wi-Fi to stalk Canadians.

Meanwhile, the nation’s spy chiefs have been answering for themselves this afternoon. At this writing, Michel Coulombe, head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), John Forster, chief of CSEC, and the prime minister’s national security adviser, Stephen Rigby, are appearing before the Senate committee on national security and defence. iPolitics’ Michelle Zillio is in the committee room, so check in at iPoliticsfor incoming coverage.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird is vowing that Canada will keep a close eye on Russia’s involvement in the turbulent Ukraine as the Winter Olympics get underway in Sochi. Baird told a news conference Monday: “We will not be taking our eye off Ukraine for one moment during the Sochi Games.”

In Washington, the International Monetary Fund said the federal government can loosen its efforts to balance the budget by 2015 in the event of an economic downturn. While the Harper government has made a zero-deficit target a central goal of its mandate, the IMF said in a report Monday that the government has room to manoeuvre.“Fiscal policy should strike the right balance between supporting growth and rebuilding fiscal buffers,” said the report.

In Western Canada, the number of outstanding grain orders has topped 40,000 and nearly 40 ships are docked at West Coast ports waiting for deliveries. Clogged grain elevators have forced farmers to store their grain on the farm, and wait times for grain deliveries are now two to three months long. The great grain backlog of 2013 is stretching into 2014 and Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz’s Crop Logistic Working Group reported today that better communication is the key to solving it.

And, of all the chatter generated by all the Super Bowl ads Sunday, the Coke ad stood out for unleashing a torrent of xenoglossophobia (that’s fear of foreign languages, for those of you with phobophobia, or fear of phobias) among American conservatives. The ad inspired a #BoycottCoke hashtag on Twitter.

Finally, we have a correction to report. Today’s Morning Brief mistakenly identified February 3 as Food Freedom Day. Our friends at the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, which calculates Food Freedom Day — the day on which the average Canadian has earned enough income to pay for his/her grocery bill for the year — promptly informed us that FFD is actually Friday, Feb 7. Our apologies and thanks to Jessica Goodfellow at the CFA.